"'Wot show?' sez I to he, sez I.
"'W'y, my show down yonder—shrieks, lightnin', ghost ship, an' all them—eh?'
"'W'y,' sez I to he, sez I, 'we thort it were the Flyin' Dutchman.'
"'So it were,' sez he to me, sez he, jess like that, me bein' Cap'n o' the brig, an' him a grinnin' Methuselah in yachtin' togs.
"'Wot d'ye mean?' sez I.
"'I'm the Flyin' Dutchman, the only one in the business, Cap'n G. W. Vanderdecken,' sez he.
"'But it ain't reg'lar at all,' sez I. 'Wot are you a-doin' of with a steam-yacht an' them clothes?'
"'Wot did ye expect? W'y, I'm up to date, I am,' sez he, laffin' like he'd bust hisself. 'I ain't no old moth-eaten barnacle-covered, worn-out spook. I'm a real, live, wide-awake Flyin' Dutchman, right down here in my own partikler latitoods, an' out an' 'tendin' to business w'en there's thick weather a-brewin'. It'll blow a livin' gale by mornin'.'
"An' with that he went into sech a fit o' laffin' I thort he'd putty well choke hisself to death, an' I 'mos' wished he would, him a-comin' aroun' scarin' sailor-men, an' makin' fun o' 'em w'en they was in danger o' shipwrack an' death.